One of my favorite rappers working today is Sean Price. Yes, he of the unrelenting hilarity and goonery. A little while ago on Twitter, some innocent soul asked him about his favorite female rappers or a closely related question. In pure Sean P fashion, he responded, and I’m paraphrasing a bit here, that he thinks that “female rappers suck.” Harsh, if you ask me.

Why did I type that opening paragraph? I don’t fucking know. What I do know is that for the first time since Missy took her hiatus of sorts, I’ve found a female rapper that I can really enjoy and root for. And given that I’ll never really be entirely sure of where Missy’s genius begins and Timbaland’s ends, I think I’ll extend that female rapper drought thing all the way back to Bahamadia’s debut. For the lazy idiots amongst you, that shit was called Kollage. Go listen to it.

I’m trying to say that I’m always hoping to hear a female MC that I can champion with a straight face and it’s been rough going in recent years. Eve used to be the shit, then she decided to act an bang African dictators instead of rapping – then returned with shitty rap songs on some vagina-ed Ludacris steez. Nicki Minaj is the behemoth that holds court now but I’ve always had an off-on relationship with her mostly wack music. Azealia Banks is interesting and talented, but she’s also annoying and does way too much to separate herself from rap. Every other female rapper I’ve heard in the last decade hasn’t done the trick for me or didn’t do the trick for enough other folks to maintain a decent career (I’m talking to you, Kid Sister). I hate to admit it, but its kinda gotten to the point where I just Sean Price the entire lot of em (ah, that’s why I wrote that paragraph) and click on the newest MMG release for the 5th time.

So all of that was just an unnecessarily long way of admitting that I stumbled into Sasha Go Hard on accident. Well, sorta. When all that Chicago Drill first started getting hyped all over the innernets, I figured it was my responsibility to get informed. I found some stuff worth listening to here and there, but if I’m being completely honest, I treat that whole wave as an occasional momentary distraction from the shit I actually love listening to. Anyway, I randomly hit play on a Sasha Go Hard interview and I just found her to be the most charming young lady ever. I generally don’t traffic in this kind of language, but she was adorable. So I figured I’d give a song or two a spin. Lo and behold, I kinda dug that shit. Like many other members of that scene, she rocks a pretty basic flow, but again, she’s just so charismatic. The same applies to her content, but there’s this balance of naivety, innocence and sass that charms the shit outta me.

I’ll admit that I haven’t spent time with an entire Sasha project before, but I’m loving the company she’s keeping on this tape. A quick glance at the production credits suggest that she’s expanding her sonic palette – that’s what it means when you set your shit off with a Diplo beat. Kreayshawn even makes a welcome appearance – I don’t think we’re rid of her yet – given that I loved her verse on the fairly nonsensical “Kill Bill.” Sasha also gets a million cool points for getting me to listen to a gay rapper for the first time – if I conveniently ignore all the strange shit a lot of your favorite rappers have said and done over the years.

Round 3 is really listenable, but the main takeaway from this mixtape is that Sasha Go Hard is an MC with a ton of potential. Some more variation on the flow coupled with more life experience to draw from and we might have a problem on our hands. A welcome problem if you ask me…